Mormons Drop Rites Opposed by Women

By PETER STEINFELS

Published: May 3, 1990

The Mormon Church has changed some of its most sacred rituals, eliminating parts of the largely secret ceremonies that have been viewed as offensive to women and to members of some other faiths.

Last month the church, with 7.3 million members one of the world's fastest-growing religious groups, quietly dropped from its temple rituals a vow in which women pledged obedience to their husbands, the wearing of face veils by women, and a portrayal of non-Mormon clergy as hirelings of Satan.

Church officials have confirmed that changes went into effect in mid-April, but the ceremonies are considered to be too sacred, they say, for them to comment further.

'Pretty Factual' Reports

More specific information on the changes has been provided to the news media by Mormons participating in the rituals at the church's 43 temples around the world and by former Mormons who are critical of the rituals. A number of Mormons who would not discuss details of the rituals verified that these reports were ''pretty factual'' or ''not inaccurate.''

''Because the temple ceremony is sacred to us, we don't speak about it except in the most general terms,'' said Beverly Campbell, the East Coast director for public communications for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

While Mrs. Campbell described the church's basic beliefs and obligations as ''timeless and binding,'' she said ''the ceremony itself needs to meet the needs of the people.'' The revised ritual is ''more in keeping with the sensitivities we have as a society,'' she added.

Lavina Fielding Anderson, who will soon become an editor of the Journal of Mormon History, said she ''greeted the changes with a great deal of joy,'' and added, ''The temple ceremony in the past has given me a message that could be interpreted as subservient and exclusionary.''

While men took an oath of obedience to God and the church in the previous ceremony, women were required to vow obedience to their husbands. The previous ceremony also required women to veil their faces at one point. Mormon feminists have criticized these elements of the ceremony, as well as the church's restriction of the priesthood and top leadership posts to men.

Although Ms. Anderson would not describe any of the changes, she said the revision ''gives me hope and renewed faith that changes will occur in the future as they have in the past.''

All the recent modifications were made in the ''endowment'' ceremony, a ritual considered essential to assure Mormons of life after death. Mormons participate in the rite only once on their own behalf, usually as young adults who are about to do missionary work or be married. But they may repeat the ritual any number of times on behalf of their ancestors.

Participants follow a dramatic reenactment, once performed by actors but now presented in most temples by films, of the Creation, life on earth and a return to God. The ceremony also contains elements resembling the Masonic rituals current in 1830, when Joseph Smith founded the church on the basis of revelations that he said he received in upstate New York.

The latest revisions diminish these elements, including gestures symbolizing the participant's pledge to undergo a gruesome death rather than reveal the rituals. Also dropped is a scene in which Satan hires a non-Mormon ''preacher'' to spread false teachings.

The rituals have been changed before. In 1927, an oath to avenge Smith's death was dropped. Smith was killed in 1844 after he and his followers had been forced to migrate first to Missouri and then to Illinois.

Brigham Young led the church's members to establish a new community in Utah, although a minority established the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which does not share the same rituals, in Independence, Mo.

''The language and whole framework of the endowment ceremony seemed to me very reflective of the 19th century,'' said a Mormon woman from the New York City area who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

''The stuff about the preacher didn't trouble me so much, because I thought, well, it just reflected a past time and that's how people thought then,'' said the woman, who described the ceremony as moving. ''The same with the women stuff. Like any other ritual, you make it your own.''

Ross Peterson, the editor of Dialogue, an independent Mormon quarterly, said the unfamiliar elements of the ritual frequently ''catches young Mormons cold'' and disturbs them. ''I've known a lot of people who went once and it was years before they'd go back, especially women,'' he said.

A New Sensitivity Is Seen

Mr. Peterson, like other church members interviewed, would not comment directly on the content of the ceremony. But he praised the changes, saying, ''They've taken out a lot of the 'us against the world' attitude.''

Both church members and non-Mormon scholars said the changes reflected a new sensitivity toward women in the church and an evolution of Mormonism away from its stormy origins in 19th-century America to a multicultural world religion.

Bruce L. Olsen, managing director of the church's communications office in Salt Lake City, denied that the changes were made in response to criticism or social pressure. The Mormon Church believes ''in continued and modern revelation,'' Mr. Olsen said, so that practices might be changed when ''the Lord clarified'' church teaching. In 1978, for example, the church dropped a longstanding policy barring blacks from the priesthood.

But some Mormons see the church as responding, without admitting it, both to critics and to the church's growth overseas. About 40 percent of its membership is outside the United States. Of 10 new members named to one of the church's high councils in March, three are non-Americans and one, Helvecio Martins, is a black Brazilian.

Among the critics are many conservative Christians who complain that Mormonism features occult practices.

Mormons consider themselves Christians, and the life, death, resurrection and teachings of Jesus are central to their faith. But besides believing in sacred books other than the Bible, Mormonism holds a polytheistic theory that God, Christ and the Holy Spirit are distinct divine beings.

Ms. Anderson rejected these criticisms. ''The temple and what it means is extremely important in my spiritual life,'' she said. ''I do not find the secrecy inappropriate. In an age of so much communications, there may be some value in having something you only think about and share in a special place.''